Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Apartment Zero (1988)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth) is living in Buenos Aires, Argentina and owner of a cinema that specializes in showing classics from Hollywood’s golden era. Unfortunately it is not making enough money and he is having trouble paying for his apartment after his mother has a mental breakdown and is forced into an institution. He decides to rent out the empty bedroom to help defer costs. After going through several would-be candidates he decides to take in a handsome and mysterious man by the name of Jack Carter (Hart Bochner). Despite Adrian’s anti-social tendencies and extreme fixation on movies and movie trivia he takes an immediate liking to Jack, even though Jack has a totally opposite personality. As their relationship progresses different sides to their personalities come out and the two develop a very odd co-dependency. Things grow troubling as a serial killer is on the loose and Adrian begins to suspect that it might be Jack. Read more 
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Some of my lady friends from the office suggested I watch and review this film for my column as they consider it to be the ultimate Thanksgiving Day movie. If other readers have suggestions for movies for me to see and review that were released between the years of 1960 and 1989, then feel free to drop me a line. Don’t worry, with my “connections” I can probably dig up even the most obscure ones, so go ahead and suggest whatever. Of course, even if you suggest a movie that you really like doesn’t necessarily mean I will like it, but if it helps create the healthy, spirited debate that we have about movies in the office then all the better. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Avanti! (1972)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Jack Lemmon plays Wendell Armbruster Jr. a conservative, set-in-his-ways businessman who travels to Italy to arrange the return of his father’s body, who died in a car accident. To his shock he finds that his father did not die alone, but instead was with his secret lady lover of 20 years. Apparently they would meet every summer and the two had been carrying on the affair without any of their family members knowing. Juliet Mills plays Pamela Piggott, the daughter of the other woman. She comes to claim the body of her mother and after the two meet a certain romantic spark slowly begins to ignite. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Charley Varrick (1973)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau) is a crop duster and former stunt pilot who in order to make ends meet robs small banks in and around the state of New Mexico. He does this with the help of his girlfriend Nadine (Jacqueline Scott) and a young, quick tempered man named Harman Sullivan (Andrew Robinson). Unfortunately the latest bank that they robbed was a front for the mob and the money they took was already stolen cash. The mob is soon hot on their trail as are the police. Worse is the fact that Charley and Harman don’t seem to see eye to eye on anything, which leads to a lot of intense confrontations and intrigue at every turn. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – The Eiger Sanction (1975)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Roger Hemlock (Clint Eastwood) is a retired assassin and mountain climber now working as a college professor of art and history. However, due to his penchant for collecting rare paintings he is sucked into doing hits from time to time by an obscure government bureau in order to help pay for his hobby. His assignment this time is to track down the Russian assassin who killed an old army buddy of his who had saved his life in the war. The identity of this killer is not known, the only thing that is known is that the man walks with a limp and is a part of a team of mountain climbers set to scale the foreboding Eiger Mountain in the Swiss Alps. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Re-Animator (1985)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Daniel Cain (Bruce Abbott) is a student at a nearby medical college who decides to take in as a roommate a foreign student named Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs). West seems a bit anti-social and very intense about his work. He sets up a lab in Cain’s basement where he does experiments to bring back the dead by injecting them with his specially formulated serum. He starts with animals, which makes it intriguing enough for Cain to get in on it, but when they move on to cadavers at the school’s medical lab things spiral out of control. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – The Bedroom Window (1987)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Terry Lambert (Steve Guttenberg) is having an affair with Sylvia (Isabelle Huppert), the wife of his boss. The two go back to his apartment one night after an office party to have sex. In the middle of the night Terry gets up to go to the bathroom and this is when Sylvia is awakened by a scream coming from outside the bedroom window. She goes to the window and sees a young woman struggling with a man on the sidewalk. When Sylvia opens the window the man runs away and by the time Terry gets there everyone is gone. The next day Terry reads in the paper about a similar murder of a woman that occurred later that night just a couple of blocks down the street. He is convinced there is a connection and that he should report the incident that Sylvia saw. In order to keep the affair a secret he decides to act as the witness and simply relay whatever Sylvia told him. However, in classic Hitchcockian style things quickly spiral out of control and Terry soon finds himself in deep trouble. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – The Verdict (1982)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) is a lawyer who has hit rock bottom. He has lost his last four cases and become an alcoholic in the process. His associate Mickey (Jack Warden) hands him what appears to be an open and shut case dealing with a woman who was put into a permanent comatose state after being given the wrong type of anesthesia during the delivery of her child. Both parties are willing to settle out of court and Frank is initially happy to accept the settlement as he is hard up for funds, but after seeing the sad condition of the patient in the hospital he changes his mind and decides to take it to court. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – The Mackintosh Man (1973)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Joseph Reardon (Paul Newman) is a spy recruited by British Intelligence to infiltrate a secret spy ring in order to expose a traitor from a high-ranking government office. In order to do so he must assume the identity of an Australian criminal and allow himself to be caught and imprisoned. He is able to escape using the help of an inside organization that arranges the escapes for high profile prisoners. He is taken to an isolated mansion at an unknown location and trained to be a part of the criminal spy ring, but he unwittingly gives out his true identity, which forces him to make a daring escape and go on the run in the middle of nowhere. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1971)
by RICHARD WINTERS
Based on the Joe Orton play of the same name, this film deals with a handsome young stranger named Sloane (Peter McEnery) who becomes a lodger at an isolated household in the English countryside. He is on the run from a murder he committed and feels this will be a safe haven due to the only other inhabitants being a quirky old lady name Katherine (Beryl Reid) and her equally quirky father Kemp (Alan Webb). Katherine, or Kath, takes a sexual interest in Sloane despite their wide age difference, which Sloane doesn’t mind as he uses this to manipulate her. When Kath’s brother Ed (Harry Andrews) arrives and takes an amorous interest in Sloane as well, he does the same thing to him. Then Kemp recognizes Sloane as the killer and Sloane is forced to kill him, which culminates with ironic results. Read more
